Another Big Salvo In Aids Battle

April 11, 1990|By John Teets.

The corporate tire-kickers from the May Department Stores Co. were in town the other day to look over Marshall Field & Co., and Fields` chairman, Philip Miller, and his wife, Anne, threw a little power lunch.

But not for the visitors. The Millers opened their Gold Coast apartment for the women who make this town`s charity efforts perk.

The people from May Co. ``didn`t want to talk to me,`` a slightly blushing Miller told his guests; they wanted to talk to Fields` income-outgo experts and such. Besides, Miller is making a rival bid to theirs-and as they say, does Macy`s tell Gimbel`s?

Anyway, the Millers and their luncheon guests-Jayne Thompson and Maggie Daley foremost among them, but also including such charitable powerhouses as Beverly Blettner, Renee Crown, Ruth Edelman, Christina Gidwitz, Helyn Goldenberg, Joan Harris, Marilyn Miglin, Ellen O`Connor and Maureen Smith-were there to talk up the Art Against AIDS kickoff April 18 at the Four Seasons. You know, the one with cocktails (at $100) or private dinner (at $500 or $1,000) with Elizabeth Taylor. (For information, call Joan Claffey at 664-1001.)

Miller hopes the dinner, plus events connected with May`s Chicago International Art Expo, will raise $1 million to be split among AmFAR-the American Foundation for AIDS Research-and the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.

Over lobster medallions and sweet-corn fritters, AmFAR`s prime mover, medical researcher Mathilde Krim, told the guests of the urgency of the cause. For example, she said, ``one-third of the population of central Africa will die`` if AIDS goes unchecked.